I have just had a couple of my photographs re-categorised from ro-ro vessels to general cargo vessels. I am in discussion over this with the admin for that category, as I know they are ro-ro vessels, as I have chartered other vessels of the class during my shipping career. However looking at the guidance notes for this category they refer to various sources where members may find information regarding the correct to enable the photograph to be uploaded to the correct category. If I look at these sources the vessel is classed as ro-ro, so if Shipspotting is using definitions that are at odds with their own recommended sources, it makes if difficult for members to categorise vessels, especially in some of the more ambiguous categories, such as offshore vessels, and certain types of multi-purpose tankers.Has any thought been given to reviewing the categories, especially with the development of more versatile vessels, that can fulfil multiple purposes that cross over current categories.

Just to thank you for your message and to let you know that the site admin are having a discussion about this. It is a complicated issue, which is not helped by the IMO, national authorities, classification societies etc moving the goalposts from time to time, no doubt for logical reasons from a regulatory point of view.

My desire is to see an easy-to-use categorisation that the generality of members can follow.We will come back to this thread as soon as possible (though that is not intended to discourage further comment here).

Anybody who has ever worked with the Lloyd's Register ship type codes, is probably aware of the great amount of main type codes (five digits IIRC) and combinations of (three digit) subtype codes. It is highly impractical to include all these codes in the categories used here. Decisions will have to be made on how to group the different types to get to manageable proportions on the site. Using Equasis may help, but as we discovered for the LR1 and LR2 tankers, many of those are classified as crude carriers. I furthermore doubt whether Equasis uses the code SD14, but there is still a category on this site for these ships. For the ship under consideration, if I am not mistaken it is one of the Fred Olsen operated pallet/general cargo ships, which do have a ro/ro facility, so they can be put under general cargo, or ro/ro or pallet carriers. However as long as the IMO number is correct, the different preferences can all be shown by one mouse click.